Chapter 562 Punishment
“The new rural management organization-I decided to call it the village management committee instead of the previous rural cooperative. It must manage all aspects of the village, like household registration management. Public affairs, disaster preparedness, and even weddings and funerals, and mediation of neighborhood conflicts are all the responsibility of the village committee. Of course, this cannot be done by one person, so a committee must be formed.”
Paul talked freely about his grassroots governance policies.
“And it will also represent me, an extension of my mouth, eyes and ears, able to convey the spirit and will from Huxin Town quickly, resolutely and powerfully, and at the same time, it can also quickly convey the spirit and will of the town to the village. All the things there are truly and authentically fed back to Huxin Town.”
I have to say that this is a very idealistic statement, and it can even be said to be a bit nonsense. Paul’s vision is in the 21st century. It's impossible to achieve on earth, let alone in this world that has not yet completely emerged from the Middle Ages. But it is always right to work in this direction, you have to take the first step.
As Paul said just now, the functions of the village committee cannot be shouldered by one or two affairs officers. Old Ford frowned tightly after hearing this, "Sir Graiman, this will definitely greatly increase our administrative staff." Cost."
"Then expand our administrative staff."
"Uh... finance."
"If not, just issue bonds!"
Paul shouted, "Our fiscal revenue has been growing anyway! And I believe that after this reform, our economy will be more active and healthier - by releasing the productivity and consumption power of rural areas."
Paul continued to talk: "To tell you the truth, from my point of view, our countryside is extremely abnormal. Yes, we have not had legal slaves for nearly a thousand years, but all kinds of unreasonable regulations have Let the de facto slavery system continue. I think everyone is well aware of this."
"The most powerful families in the village are the Warrens in this rebellion. The family, ah, and Fergus - they occupy vast fields, and their wealth has been passed down from generation to generation. They also hold the power to collect taxes from generation to generation, set private penalties according to their own will, and decide all matters in the village. This is not Is he the de facto lord of the village? And I, the real lord, can only convey my orders and collect taxes through them, and the wishes of the farmers can only be fed back to me through them. It is simply unreasonable to be able to travel unimpeded in several cities."
When it comes to this aspect, Paul is full of resentment.
In the Northwest Bay, rural manor owners used various tangible or intangible privileges in their hands to turn the majority of farmers into their de facto slaves. For example, they rent out their land to poor landless farmers, and then charge extremely high rents, leaving the farmers with only a little food to satisfy their hunger, making them unable to expand their operations, and depriving them of the opportunity to accumulate wealth. , they can only survive by renting their fields. Another example is the method of loan sharking, especially combined with their status as former tax collectors. This method is simply unfavorable. Every time a tax is collected, the farmers can only owe the tax if they cannot pay it. Then the interest is compounded, and the debt is like The snowball is getting bigger and bigger. Some farmers' families have been in debt for generations, and they don't know when they will be able to repay it in their lifetime. The manor owners use the creditor's rights in their hands to take and ask for the few properties in the hands of the debtor, sometimes even Debtor's wife and daughter. Not only do farmers have to be in debt when taxing, but also when the harvest is bad or natural disasters occur, it is also when debt is frequently borrowed in the countryside. The ability of ordinary farmers to resist risks is very low.
Do you want not to pay off your debt? Or want to escape debt? Sorry, in the village the word of the landlord is law.
In short, the landlords used various means to make the farmers dependent on themselves and tightly bound them to their own land.
Although the agricultural technology that Paul vigorously promoted in the past few years has greatly increased the area of cultivated land and harvests, the vast majority of the increase has still fallen into the pockets of rural landowners. The only benefits for ordinary farmers seem to be There just aren’t a lot of people starving to death. Paul sent clerks to the countryside, established farm cooperatives, set up circuit courts to adjudicate lawsuits for farmers, and banned private executions. The situation improved to some extent, but there was no fundamental change.
Although the large number of factories established by Paul gave farmers who left the countryside a second way to support themselves, the power of tradition is strong and a large number of farmers are still bound. .
"Look" Paul spread his hands in anger and said to one of his subordinates: "This time, I just want to take back a little bit of power in their hands - taxation and justice. They are like food protectors. Like a vicious dog, it showed its sharp fangs and bit me fiercely.”
"So I decided!"
He clenched his fists hard and hard, and there was no doubt in his tone.
"Since they are so ignorant of current affairs, then I will completely deprive them of all privileges! Note, all privileges."
"In addition to abolishing the tax farming system and taking back judicial power. I want to Go harder, yes, we have to go even harder!”]
“First of all, I want to reduce interest rates and rents, and I want to set a maximum rate for the land rent collected from tenant farmers. In short, it must not be so high that it is only given to farmers. To the extent of leaving food rations, we need to leave them seeds that can be cultivated in the next year, leave them with commercial grain that can be traded on the market, and allow farmers to make money by selling the grain, and then use the money from selling the grain to buy their own food. If you want other goods, you can actually improve your life through farming, not just survive. Then there are private loans. I will set reasonable interest rates so that hard-working people will not be able to pay off their existing loans. I will send people to review the old debts one by one. If the debts are unclear and the interest rates are outrageous, I will burn them all. For those who cannot afford to pay for their debts, their descendants will only need to publicly renounce their inheritance rights. Then there is no need to inherit debt and continue it from generation to generation. ”
"Then, I also set up the Agricultural Bank of China!"
Agricultural Bank of China? This word has aroused the interest of everyone present.
“The Agricultural Bank of China will lend money to farmers at extremely low interest rates.” Paul explained, “If farmers encounter unlucky times such as natural disasters or poor grain harvests, they can seek loans from the Agricultural Bank of China instead of Those vampire-like private moneylenders.”
Historically, the situations in the countryside were so diverse that it is impossible to describe them clearly. The rural social form of Northwest Bay in the book is created by combining several typical features of feudal society extracted by the author.
(End of this chapter)